Controversial posts made by Ganymede

@Sunny said:

From her post, I did not get the impression that Ingrid app'd in with Sam's cooperation; it sounded to me like the characters are linked in history/the source material, rather than something agreed on, and given it's NOT a situation like a leadership role (just playing an FC on a comic game doesn't qualify unless there are specific rules pertaining to this), I'm with @Arkandel on this one. Sam's player doesn't owe her anything, and to be honest if I were Sam and I read this about her considering asking staff to MAKE me play with her? That would not make me want to play with her more.

Sunny, you ignorant slut.

No, I have no witty rejoinder here, but, for the moment, I thought it might be funny if I went all Justice Scalia on your Notorious RBG opinion.

@lavit2099

It's not a bad idea, but I would suggest that you take it a step further and require that players use the gold they get to survive. Otherwise, they'll just hoard shit for no good reason.

Appropro of nothing, Fallout Shelter is fun.

I'm pretty sure that the genetic diversity of my Vault is questionable, though.

@Arkandel said:

And you'd have been justified to, but where did you read Sam asked the OP to make Ingrid?

It is reasonably inferred from Ingrid's statement about having her background tied intimately into Sam's. You generally don't do that without Sam's knowledge or consent, so I presumed that Sam had knowledge that Ingrid was coming in as Ingrid. And if you have that knowledge -- and give consent to have one's BG tied so closely to another -- you're implicitly inviting that person into your PC's life.

Certainly, it was reasonable for Ingrid to presume that Sam would make time for her, especially after he said he wouldn't. And then he didn't.

Total suggestion: ditch the circus, go with post-apocalyptic setting.

@Warma-Sheen said:

Give it a shot. They need it.

Thank you for catching that witticism.

@faraday said:

I've heard several suggestions about having multiple grids/communities/etc. but that's kind of going against the theme of isolation.

I concur.

I'm working on putting together the theme and setting files for a Mortal-only Chronicles of Darkness game set in an apocalyptic setting. Intrinsic to this game is code that will deplete necessary resources for every PC, so it requires people to occasionally log-in and participate in a survival mini-game. That mini-game is made much easier if the PC takes certain steps to maximize the returns on the time their PC spends in such mini-game.

I'm also working on finishing off my homebrew Mass Effect system so I can develop a game based on Omega, and set during the interregnum between Aria T'Loak's and General Petrovsky's regimes. The PCs would engage in a similar mini-game, but would be focused on keeping their resistance faction/gang alive.

In both cases, there are ways to get new PCs into the game. Integral to both is enforcing the isolation theme. Staff will have to make sure people are "RPing straight" to keep it up, but, in each game, the system employed will assist.

@HorrorHound

I did not mean to imply that there was no activity at all. Only that there did not seem to be much when I was around.

@Arkandel said:

That won't work well with free weights - but only because the equipment in question includes a squat rack, and I don't have the space to install one. If I did then yes, a few hundred bucks or so paid once would cover me for basically a lifetime since barbells last forever.

Last time I checked, Dailyburn does not require a squat rack.

Why on Earth do you need a squat rack? Are you into power-lifting? Do you intend to try out for the Philadelphia Eagles offensive line unit?

I'd recommend switching to dumbbells, which are more difficult to control if you use them as you would a barbell.

@hedgehog said:

The Original Dreaming MUSH had an approval questionnaire. Granted, it was easy to cheat (I did, getting really specific answers from Turner/Demosthenes because I didn't have the books yet), but at least it was there. And, no, it didn't totally weed out abominations like Peri and Ranger, but I think it was at least somewhat successful.

It is great to make sure your newbies don't come in with no knowledge of the theme/setting whatsoever. But the questionnaire was a pain in the ass for folks who did know the system, and did nothing whatsoever to address or prevent the real problems from getting in.

So, I found that shit annoying.

@Pyrephox said:

Which is a really great idea - the dozen towns, I mean. Especially for a mortals, horror-oriented game. You don't have to fight against the "why is every horrible thing in the world happening in this ONE PLACE" thing, and it lets you really sell the corrupted nature of the WoD as a widespread thing.

Pick Ohio. Large population; several cities within driving distance. Countless rural communities and towns. Hinterland (Appalachia) in the southeast; Lake Erie to the north.

@Coin

@Arkandel said:

Hm, what occured to me is we're providing no way for someone to spy on a place rather than a person.

I.e. "I'll be obfuscated in Joe's Bar tomorrow night between 6-10 pm". How is that to be fairly facilitated?

You can use softcode to do it by setting a DARK object in the room that records poses.

Double-posting. Fuck you.

@Pyrephox said:

Oh, that kind of system would be easy.

I know. Don't think I haven't thought about this system either. Playing Rebuild 3 reminded me of how easily you can create a mini-system that is entertaining but simple.

@thebird said:

I feel like [Crimson Peak] was a movie written for not-bright people, though..? del Toro's stuff is always visually very interesting, so I'm a sucker for his movies but man... I just want to like his movies so much. Good actors/actresses wasted on a pretty movie.

Crimson Peak is a wink-and-nod to the gothic horror genre, which very few people have actually read and fewer appreciate. It is actually a very, very, very good movie from that perspective.

Crimson Peak is an homage to novels from the 19th century that helped to craft modern horror, like Melmoth the Wanderer, She, or In a Glass Darkly. The novels seem slow-paced because the author is taking care to use the atmosphere to foreshadow the plot. The same thing happens in Crimson Peak, where nothing at all that happens during the denouement ought to be a surprise.

@Arkandel said:

It seems like a neater way to do it and can spare staff the headache of doing it manually.

But it doesn't spare staff the headache of having to code the command. I don't see much of a benefit for the effort, but if you're willing to pull this together, good for you.

It will not be something I demand from my coders.

@Thenomain said:

@Ganymede said:

the system I'm cobbling together

Is it related to Mass Effect?

Yes. As I said before, I was overhauling it. This is part of that overhaul.

Fuck CrossFit. My experience with a CrossFit Gym was akin to the PC Fraternity on South Park.

Go to a nice gym. Get a trainer and book 8 to 12 lessons. Get motivated, get a good playlist, and take an hour or so for yourself a day.

Plenty of folks here can help you with exercise ideas.

@Arkandel said:

The resource healthy spheres run on isn't authority, it's trust. And trust has to go both ways.

And this is the reason I pick a harder line.

Players depend on their staff to advocate for them among other staff. I did this on Haunted Memories, when it was decided that all XP requests would go through Koi. I repeatedly and expressly voiced how that decision took a great deal of decision-making authority from sphere staff, and that players are more apt to trust sphere staff, with whom they interact more, than general administrative staff. I cited the decision as one of the primary reasons I stepped away from that game.

If I can say confidently that my decisions will stand, then players can trust that I mean what I say, and that they can depend on what I tell them. If a head staffer can immediately by fiat overrule my decisions, then what I tell my players cannot be depended upon. That's not fair to me and my responsibility to run a sphere or fulfill an objective for the game, and undermines the players' trust in me, which makes everything that much more difficult